Peralta defeated Semerzier by TKO when they met on the preliminary card of UFC on FOX, which took place Saturday at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

The result was roundly booed by the audience. Although it appeared Peralta rocked Semerzier with a punch during an exchange midway through the third, replays showed an accidental clash of heads sent Semerzier to the mat. A flurry of punches from Peralta prompted referee “Big” John McCarthy to wave off the bout at 1:54 into the round.

Peralta said today that the left side of his face is still swollen from the clash and he has a black eye.

Nonetheless, he feels that what happened after the accidental headbutt was what lead to his victory.

“It’s not like when we clashed heads (that) it put him out,” he said. “He was still aware. It knocked him down. I took a big lump, too. But I was able to finish the fight.”

Semerzier’s manager has appealed the result of the bout with the California State Athletic Commission, which oversaw Saturday’s bout.

McCarthy said he didn’t see the headbutt in real-time but saw it when he reviewed a video of the bout.

“It wasn’t intentional on either guy,” McCarthy said. “So he should go to the commission. The commission will look at it, they’ll ask me what I saw, and I’m going to tell them what I saw and what I saw on the replay.”

The CSAC is currently reviewing the appeal from Semerzier’s camp. The bout’s result could be changed to a no-decision if a formal appeal
is successful. If the unintentional foul had been caught, the bout
likely would have gone to judges’ scorecards since three-round bouts that end as the
result of an unintentional third-round foul are supposed to receive a final result. Judges’
scorecards for the fight show that two judges had Peralta and Semerzier
even at a round apiece while the third judge had given Semerzier both
rounds. Since the foul was not identified, the third round did not receive a partial score.

Peralta’s manager is against a change in result.

“To me, it looked like an incidental headbutt, and Robbie continued off of it and was able to stop the fight,” said Jeff Clark. “At that point, it was up to the discretion of ‘Big’ John to decide what to do, and he let it go. Because of that, the judgement should stand.”

Semerzier, meanwhile, hopes a rematch can be put together.

“I was a man after the fight, and I hope he’s a man in giving me a rematch, or asking for it at least,” he said.

But unless the UFC requests a rematch, it looks like his request may fall on deaf ears.

“It’s up to Joe Silva and Sean Shelby,” Peralta said. “It’s unfortunate it had to end like that. I didn’t even know that it was caused by a headbutt when he fell to the ground. I thought I caught him with a punch, and then I just finished it off.”

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